Ramsay (1686-1758) was a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Most of his long life was passed in Edinburgh, where he was a wig-maker, and then a book-seller and keeper of a circulating library. His pastoral drama, The Gentle Shepherd, first published in 1725, and written in the strong, broad Doric of North Britain, is the finest existing specimen of its class. His songs, too, have endeared him to the Scottish heart.